1. Field of the invention
The invention pertains generally to devices for dispensing fluids such as liquids or loose materials. In particular, the invention relates to a device for dispensing measured quantities of a fluid from a container that forms a metering container when using such a device.
2. Description of the related art
Devices for dispensing measured quantities of a fluid from a bottle and metering bottles are well known in the art. Donoghue, U.S Pat. No. 3,581,953, discloses a refillable and flexible walled container that has first and second integrally formed chambers arranged one above the other, with an integrally formed separating wall therebetween. A tubular plug is threadably received in an insert fixed in an opening defined by said separating wall, and access to the plug is provided through a dispensing opening in the upper or second chamber. The plug carries a tube or conduit, through which liquid can be forced by squeezing the lower or first chamber-defining portion. Also, the plug has a laterally open passageway for directing the liquid toward the side of the second chamber to permit filling of the latter to a desired level, after which the container can be inverted to dispense only that liquid in said second chamber.
Zipper, U.S. Pat. No. 3,796,348, describes liquid metering and counting and dispensing means where a liquid pourer is attached to a bottle for automatically dispensing a predetermined amount of liquor each time the bottle is tilted to pouring position. The number of such tilts or dispensing operations appears as a count. The count is read from a sleeve, which is advanced one count. Such sleeve has saw-toothed type projections at each of its ends cooperating with complementary projections to assure advancement of the sleeve only one count for each dispensing operation. The amount of liquor dispensed is metered using a plunger assembly having apertured portions therethrough, which are covered by a valve element movable on the plunger assembly. The position of the plunger assembly is adjustable to adjust the amount of liquor dispensed. To prevent dispensing of liquor unless the bottle is in substantially an upright, inverted position, a so-called antimilking device is associated with the pouring spout. It involves a spool-shaped valve element carrying a locking ring, which is engageable with an abutment on the pouring cap to prevent this valve element from uncovering openings in the pouring spout unless the bottle is in substantially a completely inverted position. Thus, complete advancement of the counting sleeve prior to dispensing of liquor is assured.
Guala, U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,661, discloses a liquid measuring and dispensing bottle closure device for attachment to the neck of a bottle. It is formed as a cylindrical hollow body with a metering control chamber located concentrically in the chamber and a central air inlet tube which projects into the metering control chamber. When the pourer is attached to a bottle, the central air inlet tube communicates with the interior of the bottle, where a transverse diaphragm having a plurality of openings is provided. Through those openings, the liquid must flow to pass from the bottle. The openings are sufficiently small to be spanned by a film of the liquid due to surface tension, once wetted thereby, so as to prevent the inflow of air to the bottle by the liquid exit route. In this way, the airflow into the bottle only via the air inlet tube is controlled.
Donoghue, U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,547, discloses a measuring and dispensing apparatus for use with a flexible-wall container. The apparatus is a combination of a dispensing means, wall means and a tube. The dispensing means has an enlarged cylindrical base portion with container engaging means thereon and an upstanding portion. The upstanding portion has an upper end and a lower end, the lower end being disposed on the enlarged base portion. The upstanding portion also has a bore and an outlet orifice disposed proximate the upper end and in fluid communication with the bore. The wall means is disposed around the dispensing means and forms, with the enlarged base portion a fluid measuring chamber. The chamber has an upper end having a fluid outlet. The tube has an inlet end and an outlet end, and is arranged so that the outlet end is disposed in the bore in the upstanding portion of the dispensing means and in fluid communication therewith, whereas the inlet end is adapted to be disposed in the flexible-wall container.
Morris, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,142, discloses a device for dispensing fluid substances. The device includes a dispensing container for holding a metered amount of the fluid substance in it immediately prior to dispensing, a hollow adapter and a valving system within the adapter. The dispensing container includes a primary opening in its top edge, which is adapted to be capped during filling of the dispensing container and which is adapted to be opened when it is desired that the metered amount of fluid substance be dispensed from the container. The dispensing container also includes a secondary opening in its lower section, which may be substantially smaller than the primary opening. The hollow adapter is secured to the secondary opening of the dispensing container and adapted to be secured to the neck of a bottle or other source of the fluid substance to be dispensed. The hollow adapter includes a dispensing collar adapted to be secured to the secondary opening of the dispensing container and a holder collar adapted to be secured to the neck of a bottle or holder of the fluid substance. Also, the hollow adapter includes a collapsible and expandable sleeve, which is hollow and interconnects the two caps of the adapter to provide a path of fluid flow communication between the holder of the fluid substance and the interior of the dispensing container. The valving system within the adapter meters the amount of fluid substance flowing into the dispensing container. The valving system may include a rubber plug member adapted to be placed within the secondary opening of the dispensing container to prevent fluid flow communication through this opening, The positioning of the plug within the secondary opening is responsive to the expanding or collapsing of the sleeve of the adapter.
Donoghue, U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,673, describes a liquid measuring and dispensing apparatus that represents the combination of a reservoir container having a flexible wall and measuring and dispensing means disposed on the reservoir container. The measuring and dispensing means comprises an outer wall member and an inner wall member. The inner wall member is disposed within the outer wall member and spaced therefrom to define liquid passage means between the outer wall member and the inner wall member. The inner wall member defines a measuring chamber within the outer wall member. Liquid passage means are provided in liquid communication with the liquid passage and the measuring chamber, and conduit means are disposed in the reservoir container and in liquid communication with the liquid passage means.
Coetzee, U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,106, presents a dispensing and metering device, which can be attached to the neck of a bottle. The device has a housing defining a chamber having an inlet and an outlet. The chamber can be filled through the inlet with liquid from a bottle secured to the device by an attachment element and can be drained through the outlet. A valve arrangement includes an outlet nozzle extending generally away from the outlet. The arrangement is movable from a first condition, in which it closes the inlet and opens the outlet, through a second condition, in which it closes both the inlet and the outlet, to a third condition, in which it closes the outlet and opens the inlet. A flow path is defined at least partly within the valve arrangement for introducing air into the chamber via the nozzle and the outlet. The air replaces liquid flowing from the outlet when the outlet is open. The valve arrangement is resiliently biased to the third condition to keep the outlet closed until the valve arrangement is operated.
Reilly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,370 discloses a portable liquid metering and dispensing device adapted to be fitted into the opening of a container such as a bottle. The device has an upper pouring spout, which is connected by a conduit to an inlet in the lower end of the device within the neck of the bottle. Means are provided for normally blocking the passage of liquid through the conduit by a valve or the like. When the bottle is tipped, a switch actuates the means, which unblock the conduit for a predetermined period of time and then block it back. Thus, when the device inserted into a bottle is in inverted position, liquid from the bottle passes from the inlet through the outlet to a glass for a period of time, which correlates with the desired volume of liquid. As long as the bottle is kept inverted, no further flow will occur. However, when the bottle is turned right side up, the tipping switch can then be reactivated by tipping the bottle.
In the preferred form of the Reilly""s invention, a logic circuit is provided. Upon a signal from the tipping switch, it activates the means to open the conduit and then re-activates the means to close the conduit, and also both counts and displays the number of times this action takes place. The tipping switch can be a mercury switch or other switch sensitive to its position with respect to gravity as for example, a sliding magnet switch. The valve is preferably a pinch valve operated by a cam or gear. It is also preferred that the device include a bottle removal counter and display, which will count and display the number of times the device is removed from a bottle by means of a switch. Further, in order to give security to the device, a magnetic reed switch responsive to an independent magnet can actuate the actual reading of the display.
A metering device for liquids, particularly liquors and alcoholic drinks, according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,179 issued to Crespi, is shaped for application to a bottle or other liquid container for pouring metered amounts of the contents thereof into a glass. The device comprises a cylindrical metering chamber having openings on opposite bases and valve members for alternately opening these openings. The valve members are actuated in unison by gravity-operated members arranged on one end of a control lever having the other end journalled to the valve members.
The invention is based upon a notion of keeping the bottle shut while its contents is to be served and opening it when the contents is instead required to be served. Thanks to this feature, the device affords an accurate metering action through an operation, which reproduces a normal typical operation of pouring liquid from a bottle. When the bottle is progressively tilted to pour its contents into a glass, the metering chamber is filled as soon as the bottle is inclined past the horizontal. Then, the gravity-operated members suddenly cause closing of the communication between the metering chamber and the bottle and opening of the metering chamber to the outside, thus causing pouring of the metered amount into the glass.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,312 issued to Donoghue is a dispensing unit with metering chamber for dispensing preselected quantities of liquid from a container such as squeeze bottle. The dispensing unit includes an outer cup member and an inner cup member, with the inner cup member having radial openings therethrough, which are circumferentially spaced and at selected heights so as to determine the level of liquid within the inner cup member. The outer cup member is provided with an axial flow passage, which may either be sealed by the inner cup member or may have one of the openings in the inner cup member aligned therewith. The liquid dispensed into the inner cup member, if the inner cup member is accidentally overfilled, will seek the preset level so that the desired measured amount of the liquid, which is to be dispensed, will be retained within the inner cup member.
Tiltable metering dispenser according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,149 issued to Hester provides for dispensing measured doses during each dispensing cycle. A fluid tight bottle is provided with a well at its bottom. A hollow shell fits in the well and includes an opening permitting flow of material from the bottle into the shell. A tubular stem extends from the shell through the top of the bottle and terminates in a dispensing spout. Different embodiments are disclosed that provide different arrangements for supplying air to an air chamber in the top of the bottle so that pressure within the bottle can equalize at the end of each dispensing cycle. If the bottle is not a squeeze bottle, air is supplied to the bottom of the bottle to displace the liquid in the shell, which is dispensed through the stem upon inversion of the bottle. Additional embodiments of the invention are specially constructed to dispense powders and to allow the dosage of each dispensing cycle to be adjusted.
Joulia, U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,802, discloses a metering bottle for dispensing a dose of liquid when the cap of the bottle is removed. When the cap is filly on the bottle, it keeps a bellows compressed. When the cap is removed, the bellows is allowed to expand and the resulting suction causes a dose of liquid from the bottle to be sucked into the bellows via a plunger tube, which sticks into the liquid, and via an opening into the bellows chamber. A one-way valve at the opening into the bellows chamber prevents the dose of liquid in the bellows chamber from flowing back into the bottle. When the dose of liquid is used and the bellows chamber is empty of liquid, the lid can be replaced. When the lid is replaced the bellows is collapsed. The air in the bellows chamber is then forced back through an air microhole in the one-way valve into the bottle.
Peckels, U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,521 discloses a bottle mounted liquid metering apparatus including a helical fastener band self-adapting to a thread pitch. In alternative embodiments, collars rotatively supported relative to a pour tube and a plug portion control the size of a vent aperture and/or a fill window within the interior of the bottle along the pour tube and thereby the volume dispensed. A bottle vent integrally extends from the body of a threaded cap or a plug in radial relation thereto. Electronically timed annunciator means sequentially and uniformly meters a dispensed volume.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,553 issued to Weinstein is a liquid metered dispensing container of the squeezable type. The squeezable container has an opening for dispensing liquid therefrom at one end and a bottom at the other end. A non-flexible trap chamber is connected to the opening and extends outwardly therefrom. The trap chamber has a lower end inserted into the container opening and has an inlet orifice extending from the lower end into the container. The inlet orifice is adapted to receive a dip tube, which is attached thereto and extends close to or at the bottom of the container. The trap chamber has an upper end with a dispensing orifice that is small enough to prevent dripping of liquid therefrom by gravity when the bottle is inverted, but is large enough to dispense liquid therefrom when the bottle itself is squeezed. A one way valve is connected to the lower end of the trap chamber, which permits liquid to flow from the container to the trap chamber but not vice versa. The trap chamber may have indicia so that exact dosage levels of different amounts may be squeezed into the chamber, or the chamber itself may have a single, predetermined volume.
With each of the above-described devices having quite concrete and specific benefits and advantages, relative complexity is a drawback that is more or less characteristic for all of them.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a dispensing device, which, while permitting a user to selectively preset the volume of fluid to be dispensed without the necessity of maintaining numerous dispensers, would be more simple in its structure.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a dispensing device, which, when fit on a bottle or similar container, would form a metering container therewith.
It is yet further object of the present invention to provide a metering container that would be convenient, simple in structure and equally suited to dispensing liquids and dry flowable materials.
The foregoing objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved in various embodiments that are united by a common inventive concept and more particularly described hereinafter. The common inventive concept provides for indicating an amount or volume of fluid that can be dispensed from a container by a distance left between a lower end of a tube placed into the container and a bottom of the container.
In one aspect of the invention, there is provided a device for dispensing measured quantities of a fluid from a container of the type that has a neck with a bore in communication with an interior of the container for dispensing the fluid through the bore. The device comprises a tube and means that releasably and selectively holds the tube and is also adapted to be releasably connected to the neck. The area on the tube, by which the tube is held by that holding means, defines a distance between a lower end of the tube and a bottom portion of the container when the holding means is connected to the neck and the tube is placed inside the container. In this way, a maximal portion of the fluid that can be dispensed through the tube upon tilting the container for the selected area is determined.
Holding the tube by the holding means, as well as the connection between the holding means and the neck are made fluid tight.
The holding means is provided with a hole, in which the tube is received.
The tube can be provided with a gripper to facilitate moving the tube through the holding means.
That gripper may include a slit cut in an upper portion of the tube, or a ring fixed to an upper end of the tube, by which slit/ring the tube can be engaged by a user.
The holding means may include a cap, in which case the releasable connection of the holding means and the neck is performed by way of the cap fitting on the neck. The connection can be a threaded one.
Alternatively, the holding means may include a plug, in which case the releasable connection of the holding means and the neck is performed by way of the plug fitting in the neck. This connection can also be a threaded one.
The holding means may be provided with a recess on its inner surface defining the hole, whereas the tube is provided with projections spaced along a tube axis. The projections are adapted to be in snappable engagement with the recess, and the location of the engagement on the tube will define the area to be selected for dispensing the selected amount of fluid.
Alternatively, the holding means may be provided with a projection on its inner surface, whereas the tube is provided with recesses spaced along a tube axis. The recesses are adapted to be in snappable engagement with the projection, the location of the engagement on the tube defining the area to be selected for dispensing the selected amount of fluid.
In another alternative, holding the tube may also be performed by way of the holding means releasably fitting on the tube provided with graduation marks to indicate the selected area and thus the maximal portion of the fluid to be dispensed for the selected area. This releasable fitting may include a threaded connection.
In still another alternative, the holding means may further comprise a grip releasably engaging the tube provided with graduation marks to indicate the selected area and thus the maximal portion of the fluid to dispensed from the container for the selected area.
Also, the device may comprise a rubber ring, whereas the inner surface of the holding means defining the hole is shaped slant, and the rubber ring is fit between the inner surface and the tube.
In another aspect of the invention, a metering container for dispensing measured quantities of a fluid is provided. The container comprises a neck sitting on a top portion of the container, which, together with a bottom portion and a wall portion, defines an interior of the container. The neck is provided with a bore that is in communication with the interior for dispensing the fluid through the bore. The container also comprises a dispensing device, which in turn comprises a tube and means that releasably and selectively holds the tube and is adapted to be releasably connected to the neck. An area selected on the tube, by which the tube is held by the holding means, defines a distance between a lower end of the tube and a bottom portion of the container. In this way, a maximal portion of the fluid is determined for the selected area that can be dispensed through the tube upon tilting the container.
Holding the tube and connecting the holding means to the neck are made fluid tight.
The holding means is provided with a hole, in which the tube is received.
The tube is provided with a gripper to move the tube through the holding means. The gripper may include a slit cut in the tube or a ring fixed to an upper end of the tube, by which slit/ring the tube can be engaged by a user.
In one embodiment, the holding means includes a cap, and the releasable connecting of the holding means to the neck is performed by way of the cap fitting on the neck.
In another embodiment, the holding means includes a plug, and the releasable connection of the holding means and said neck is performed by way of the plug fitting in the neck. The fitting in both embodiments can be a threaded one.
In still another embodiment, the holding means is provided with a recess on its inner surface that defines the hole. On the other hand, the tube is provided with projections spaced along an axis of the tube and adapted to be in a releasable snappable engagement with the recess. The location of the engagement on the tube indicates the selected area defining the amount of the fluid to be dispensed from the container.
Alternatively, the holding means can be made with a projection on its inner surface, whereas the tube is provided with recesses spaced along its axis and adapted to be in a releasable snappable engagement with the projection. Again, the location of the engagement on the tube indicates the selected area defining the amount of the fluid to be dispensed from the container.
In yet another embodiment, the releasable holding the tube can be performed by way of the holding means releasably fitting on the tube, which is provided with graduation marks to indicate the selected area and thus the maximal portion of the fluid to be dispensed for the selected area. This releasable fitting may include a threaded connection.
In an additional embodiment, the holding means may further comprise a grip releasably engaging the tube provided with graduation marks to indicate the selected area and thus the maximal portion for this selected area.
The metering container may also comprise a sealing ring, whereas an inner surface of the holding means that defines the hole is shaped slant, and the rubber ring is fit between the inner surface and the tube.
In still another aspect of the present invention that has no adapter between the container and the dispensing device, the tube and the neck are provided with means releasably and selectively retaining the tube within the neck, and the selected area on the tube, by which the tube is retained within the neck by the retaining means, defines a distance between a lower end of said tube and a bottom portion of said container and, respectively, a maximal portion for the selected area of the fluid that can be dispensed through the tube upon tilting the container.
The retaining means may include at least one recess on an inner surface of the neck and groups of projections on the tube spaced along its axis. Each group comprises at least one projection and is adapted to be in a snappable engagement with that at least one recess. The location of the engagement on the tube defines the selected area.
Alternatively, the retaining means includes at least one projection on the inner surface of the neck and groups of recesses on the tube spaced along its axis. Each group comprises at least one recess and is adapted to be in a snappable engagement with that at least one projection. Similarly, the location of the engagement on the tube defines the selected area.
In an additional modification, the releasable retaining of the tube can be performed by way of the tube releasably fitting in the neck, the tube being provided with graduation marks to indicate the selected area and thus the maximal portion of the fluid to be dispensed for this selected area. This releasable fitting may include a threaded connection.